


Not for puppies

by yuuago



Category: A Redtail's Dream (Webcomic)
Genre: Christmas Party, Gen, Identity Reveal, Post-Canon, silly stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21943192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuuago/pseuds/yuuago
Summary: Sometimes, it's easy to forget that Ville is human now. Especially around delicious Christmas cookies.
Relationships: Hannu Viitanen & Ville
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	Not for puppies

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2019 SSSS & aRTD Fan-Forum Advent Calendar. You can view all of the works for it [over here](https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1108.0)!

"No, Ville. It's not for puppies."

Not for puppies? Not for puppies?! But that was so unfair!

Ville rested his head on Paju's knee, wiggled his tail, and gave her – and the delicious-smelling cookie in her hand – the biggest, most pathetic eyes he could muster. Maybe she'd decide that it was for puppies after all. Maybe.

No luck. Lots of headpats, but that cookie was still out of reach. And it all continued in the same way as he went around to each person, tail willing and ears pricked, peeking up at them from under the table.

"Not for puppies, Ville!"

Clearly everyone at the party wanted to keep all that goodness for themselves.

When Hannu had clipped his leash on that evening, Ville hadn't had any idea about what he was in for. All he knew was that they were going for walkies.

But then they went to Paju's house, which was exciting in itself. And there were so many people! And so much food! ...But none of it was for him.

Not for puppies? But why?

Disappointed, he went over to Hannu, and put his head on his lap. He applied the puppy-eyes and the tail-wiggling.

For a moment, Hannu stared him down, trying to look stern. Then he sighed, broke off a piece of sugar cookie, and slipped it to Ville under the table.

Victory!

* * *

If Ville had still had his tail, it would be wagging.

"Why are you so excited?" Hannu muttered as he sprinkled spices into the ginger cookie dough. "We're just going to see the same people we see every day. It's nothing special."

"But it's a Christmas party!"

"So?"

"And I'll get to talk to everybody! And play board games with you! And there'll be sweets!"

"Oh." Hannu frowned. "You'd better not plan on eating all of the cookies."

"I know, I know, they're not for – but I'm not a dog any more!"

Hannu snorted. "You still act like one, though. Anyway, I mean that you'll have to leave some for the other people. And don't make yourself sick."

"Oh!" Well. That made sense. "I can do that."

"Good." Hannu started to roll the dough into balls, looking almost happy for a moment. "I guess this thing won't be so boring with you there, at least."

Ville grinned. He couldn't wait!

* * *

Chips! And caramel popcorn! And tons and tons of cookies!

They had walked to Paju's place in the evening darkness, Hannu with a tin full of slightly-charred ginger cookies under his arm, and Ville bouncing along beside him all the way.

The atmosphere inside was warm and cozy. It didn't matter that they spent time with Joona and Jonna every day, and Paju and Riikka almost as frequently. It was nice to see Hannu's friends, who by now were also Ville's friends. And a hug from Paju made it even better.

Finally, finally! For once, Ville wasn't reduced to begging for crumbs. As the others set up the Scrabble game, Ville loaded his plate with one of each kind of the treats – and, remembering Hannu's warning, made sure to leave some for everybody else.

Because there were so many people, they had to double up into teams. That suited Ville fine, because Scrabble was definitely not a game he was good at. He sat beside Hannu and gave him suggestions, nibbling on cookies all the while.

Apparently, they weren't very good suggestions, because he and Hannu were losing. But Ville didn't mind, and Hannu couldn't care less.

Ville quickly finished his sweets.

The game continued on.

He stared at Hannu. And Hannu's plate. And the cookies on it. 

There had been a time when he would have been able to sneakily snatch one with his mouth while Hannu was distracted. Usually, he didn't have a great success rate, but sometimes he managed.

It wasn't something he was going to try now, though. There were some things that humans just couldn't get away with.

Instead, Ville attempted to oh-so-sneakily reach over and pluck one off the plate. Easy does it...!

Hannu caught his hand, holding it firmly. "No, Ville," he said, talking in the exact same way that he always used to, half-distracted as he tried to decide what word to put on the board next. "Not for puppies."

"But -"

Silence descended on the table.

Paju was raising an eyebrow. Riikka and Jonna looked amused. Joona looked like he was trying to figure something out.

"Not for puppies?" Paju echoed.

Uh oh.

"It's..." Ville hesitated.

"A joke," Hannu finished.

"You know," Joona said, idly rearranging the tiles on his letter stand, "I always did find it weird that your housemate has the same name as your dog."

"So what?" asked Hannu.

"So, it's weird."

Ville looked at Hannu. Hannu looked at Ville.

They had talked about this before. It was pretty much guaranteed that people would ask about it. And sure enough, their friends had brought up the subject more than once over the months since Hannu had got himself a new "housemate". But somehow, nobody seemed to have believed Hannu when he'd said that dog-Ville had died, no matter how many times Hannu gave them that explanation.

And now, it sounded like some of them were starting to catch on.

Ville didn't know what to do. So, he did what he did best: Gave Hannu puppy eyes. Please? He thought. Please just take care of this.

Hannu, knowing what he meant to say, just shrugged. Then he glanced around the table at everybody.

Well.

"Last year," Hannu said, plucking letter tiles from his stand, "A weird fox trapped everyone in a dream. And me and Ville had to save your butts. When we finally got out of there, Ville was magically turned into a human. The end." He placed the tiles on the board, picked up the tile bag, and picked out replacements, as if he hadn't said anything weird at all. "That's ten points, by the way," he said, glancing over to Riikka, who had been keeping score.

Paju sat back in her chair, letting out a long huff. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "If you don't want to explain, you should just say so! You don't have to lie about it."

"It does make a good story, though," Jonna said.

While Paju huffed and puffed a bit, she didn't contradict that. So maybe, Ville thought, maybe she thought it was a good story too.

Hannu turned his head a bit to look at Ville. There was a slight smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. That'll be the end of that, his eyes said. He nudged a crispy ginger cookie over to Ville. "Here. You have it."

It was hard and crunchy and good, and as he devoured it as slowly as possible – which wasn't very slowly at all, but he did his best – Ville decided this meant that they'd both won.

The End.


End file.
